Derick (Delta Forces #3) - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,20

the filthy, sweaty mess piled just inside the door. She’d collect her dirty clothes later. She raced up the stairs and jumped into the shower.

When she was clean, Carrie pulled on the pretty sundress she’d worn that first night with Derick. She swished her hips playfully, feeling feminine as the short skirt danced around her thighs. Instead of drying her hair, she simply pulled it up on top of her head and slipped on sandals, then went to meet the two ladies.

“That was fast!” Lexie called out, pouring some wine into a glass, which she handed to Carrie as she stepped up onto Derick’s porch.

“Thank you!” Carrie said, accepting the glass and taking a sip. “Oh, this is good!” she whispered, sitting down in one of the porch chairs.

“Why don’t you have furniture at your place?” Abby asked, sitting with a glass of lemonade in one hand and the other resting over her gently pregnant belly.

“Oh, I’m only here long enough to renovate the house. I’ll sell it for a profit, then move on.”

There was a long pause as both ladies stared at her. “Does Derick know this?” Lexie asked.

“About you moving on?” Abby clarified.

Carrie glanced away, unaware of the longing on her face, which the other two immediately recognized. “I don’t know. We never talk about the future.” When she turned to look back at them, she said, “We’re only neighbors.”

Lexie smiled gently. “I don’t think that Derick considers you to be just a neighbor. If that were the case, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Lexie is right,” Abby added. “Derick asked us to come over and check on you.”

Carrie stiffened slightly, hurt. “I don’t need pity,” she told the ladies, setting her glass of wine down.

“If we pitied you, then you’d be in your house with Zeke’s cookies, all alone. The cookies would have been enough. The wine is from us. It’s our offer of friendship,” Abby explained.

Carrie eyed them carefully, their smiles seemed to be genuine. “Thank you,” she replied. “I’m a little…wary.”

Lexie grinned and the expression transformed her features. “We understand. We’ve both been through trials and tribulations with life. But…” she paused, shooting a meaningful look at Carrie. “I doubt that the issues we struggled with were as painful as yours.”

Carrie didn’t reply. Instead, she took a long sip of her wine, not sure how to respond.

“Those are your secrets,” Abby said into the silence. “But know that we’re here if you need someone to talk to. And if you’re leaving soon, we’re a good ear for venting, since you’ll never see us again.”

Lexie leaned forward. “I hope that’s not the case though.”

After that, the conversation changed and Carrie was able to relax. Abby told stories about life in the Army, who was a captain and a medical doctor. And life with military husbands, since they were each married to one. Lexie regaled them with the plot to her next romance novel, which Carrie thought was thrilling! And they laughed about everything! It was one of the nicest evenings she’d had with women in a long, long time!

“When did Derick install a watering system?” Abby asked, her eyes narrowing on the sprinklers that had just turned on throughout the huge garden area.

Carrie jumped up and turned around since her back had been to the yard. “Shoot! I need to fix the timers,” she said and walked over to the faucet that she’d installed earlier today. With a few twists, she changed the timing system and the sprinklers slowly shut down.

Wiping her hands on her thighs, she nodded with satisfaction, and returned to the porch. “What?” she said when she realized that both Lexie and Abby were staring at her.

“Did you install a sprinkler system for Derick?”

Carrie shrugged awkwardly, not sure what to say. “He’s always moving the sprinklers around. He waters the garden every couple of days and…well, he’s constantly feeding me and giving me loads of vegetables. It’s the least I could do to repay him.”

Abby nodded her head. “Right,” she replied, a knowing grin to her pretty features.

Lexie laughed. “He grumbles about watering all the time. He’s going to love having a sprinkler system!”

Carrie suddenly missed her old friends. She missed talking about girl stuff. It was around eight o’clock when Abby and Lexie bid her goodbye.

“Let’s do this again soon,” Abby said, as she leaned in to hug Carrie. “You’re a lot of fun, Jolene.”

Carrie smiled, warmed by her offer of friendship.

Lexie nodded, and hugged Carrie as well. “I agree. I don’t like it